Animal Rights Victories in 1999

Animal Rights Victories in 1999
Compiled by Michael Markarian of The Fund for Animals
For the 2000 Summit for Animals

North Carolina grand jury handed down first ever felony animal abuse indictment against pig farmers.
Smithsonian canceled plans for foie gras celebration due to pressure from many animal groups and celebrities.
European government Farm Ministers signed agreement banning battery cage hens (ban takes effect in 2012).
After four years of protests, Redondo Beach canceled its annual Lobster Festival.
President Clinton signed HR 1887, known as the "crush" video bill, barring the sale of videos through the Internet depicting animal cruelty.
New York passed a bill elevating intentional and extreme animal cruelty to a felony offense.
Five states (New Mexico, Maryland, Maine, Virginia, and Nevada) enacted laws to allow the courts to order psychological counseling for animal abusers.
Three states (Tennessee, Louisiana, and North Carolina) enacted animal-friendly vehicle license plate programs to benefit spay/neuter efforts.
The NIH banned the use of mice in monoclonal antibody production, saving the lives of up to one million mice per year, and admitting that animals feel "pain, distress, or discomfort."
Twenty-one chimps, formerly owned by the Air Force and then awarded to the Coulston Foundation for research, were instead retired to a Florida sanctuary (though they won’t move into new sanctuary until enclosure is built in 2000).
Nationwide protests dramatically altered the Environmental Protection Agency’s HPV industrial chemical testing program, reducing the number of animals used from 1.3 million to 500,000, saving the lives of 800,000 animals.
Colgate-Palmolive declared an "immediate and voluntary moratorium on all animal testing of its personal care products designed for adults and the ingredients used in those products."
Mary Kay Cosmetics signed an agreement pledging not to use animals to test its products or to buy ingredients from companies that do, becoming the largest company to so pledge.
New Zealand Parliament banned the use of all great apes in research, testing, or teaching "unless such use is in the best interests of the non-human hominid" or his/her species.
The nation of Slovakia banned all cosmetic tests on animals, after a three-year campaign by Slovakian animal protection groups.
Pepsi withdrew its sponsorship of Mexican bullfighting events and ordered all its signs removed from bullfighting arenas.
Oregon passed the strongest law in the country banning "canned hunts" of exotic mammals in any enclosed area, no matter what the size of the enclosure.
After a decade-long campaign by animal protection groups and a ruling of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Hegins pigeon shoot was permanently canceled.
Sears ended sponsorship of the Ringling Bros. circus after a disastrous year of animal-related incidents, including the death of Kenny the baby elephant.
The city council of Redmond, Washington unanimously banned exotic animal acts.
The city council of Alexandria, Virginia voted to deny permission for the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. circus to perform there (the city council will now consider a complete ban on all circuses and animal acts).
A Sacramento jury convicted two cockfighters of felony animal cruelty, marking the first time the California cruelty to animals statute was used to prosecute cockfighting, and another Sacramento jury sentenced a dogfighter to seven years in prison, the longest dogfighting sentence ever in the nation.
Bunny the elephant, after 45 years of living in solitary confinement in Indiana, and Sissy the elephant, after public airing of a videotape involving her beating at the El Paso Zoo, were both transferred to an elephant sanctuary.
The Arizona Fish and Game Commission voted 3 to 2 on the side of animal protection advocates to ban the contest killing of coyotes, prairie dogs, and other wildlife (the ban was overturned by the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, but the Fish and Game Commission voted 4 to 1 to resubmit the rule for consideration).
Woodstream Corp., the nation’s largest maker of leghold traps, stopped making leghold traps because it had ceased to be profitable.
Southwest Airlines removed Outdoor Life magazine from its airplanes due to complaints from passengers about hunting articles.
Hasbro and USAOPOLY agreed to stop manufacturing "Iditarod Monopoly."
France became the final member of the EU to ratify the Treaty of Amsterdam, recognizing animals as sentient beings capable of feeling fear and pain, and of enjoying themselves when well treated (the EU must now "pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals" when formulating policies on agriculture, transport, research, and internal trade).
San Francisco adopted new language referring to animal "guardians," thus recognizing companion animals as more than objects.
Township of Montgomery, New Jersey passed an ordinance prohibiting electric prods at its annual benefit rodeo, and Johnson & Johnson, the top supporter of the rodeo, dropped its sponsorship of the event.
Voters in Estes Park, Colorado passed a ballot initiative banning the caging of animals for exhibition, thus defeating the proposed "plexiglass zoo" and also prohibiting zoos and most circus acts.
Outspoken vegetarian advocate Albert Einstein was named Man of the Century by Time magazine.
Israel banned animal experiments in schools, including dissection, after a very passionate animal rights statement made by the Israeli Minister of Education.
Top law schools such as Harvard and Georgetown began teaching classes on animal law (and the first Animal Law casebook was published).
Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine became the first veterinary school to eliminate dog labs.
Congress substantially increased funding for enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act.
San Diego and Houston banned "pound seizure" and stopped selling shelter animals to research laboratories.
Major British supermarkets withdrew "exotic meat" from their shelves.
Meat alternatives became increasingly more popular and more available at supermarkets and restaurants in the U.S. and worldwide.
Congress directed the NIH in its appropriations bill to stop using animals from "B dealers."
Congress took the first ever vote on trapping, with the House of Representatives overwhelming voting to ban leghold traps on National Wildlife Refuges, and the Senate defeating the measure.
The Queen’s Speech in British Parliament vowed to abolish fur farms.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Cenestin, a plant-based estrogen replacement virtually identical to Premarin, the drug made from the urine of pregnant mares.